Soprano Mai Israeli recently let us know about performances of Villa-Lobos songs in Tel Aviv and other venues in Israel. She was asked to perform at the recent Gala Concert, part of the First International Villa-Lobos Congress in Paris:

"dear Dean
i just got back from the conference. it was very successful. Musicians from all over the world meet for Villa-lobos conference.
As i promised i am writing to you about my experience in this conference.
the first villa lobos conference was very impresive and educating. great Musicians, musicologists and researchers took part in this conference. it was very interesting and educating to hear each research and the point of view of each of them. also, most of us did not knew each other, we felt like a big family, the villa lobos familiy.
The gala concert went very well. i was very flattered when Mr. Pierre Vidal, the president of the conference, told me that he was looking for the right villa lobos singer for a long time, and that now, finally, he found her. he had suggested to arrange recordings of the villa lobos songs with labels in Switzerland.
Prf. Tarasti, the vice president, told me that the interpretation were very accurate and that the style also were exactly the villa lobos style.
i was very honored to participate in such important event and to get such warm responses.
My planes for the future are- recording and performing my recital of brazilian songs all over the world.
i hope we will meet some time.
yours sincerely
mai israeli"

Thanks, Mai for this report. I'm certainly looking forward to hearing your interpretations.

Mai Israeli Sings VL Songs

A recent e-mail from Mai Israeli in Tel Aviv reports on last month's Villa-Lobos concert there:

"i am very happy to tell that the recital i gave in tel Aviv were a great success and we got very good critics in the newspapers. the audience were facinated, they said they never knew that this kind of music can be so excited and full of feelings. i also told some stories from the stories you have send me." The stories I sent Mai came from cronicas translated by Lee Boyd and Harold Lewis - most can be found at the "Essays" page on the HVL Website.

Mai goes on to say: "we have been invited already to perform in some other places in israel and in April we will perform in Paris in the first Villa lobos conference."

There will be an impressive list of people performing at the Paris Conference. Others scheduled to appear include guitarists Turíbio Santos and Benjamin Bunch, and pianist Sonia Rubinsky. I'll update this list when I hear more...